Never Forget
by Enji
Summary: G1. It's not easy being Ratchet. He's bored, and on top of that it seems that his partner's forgotten about their anniversary. Slash, Prowl/Ratchet.
1. Surprise

A/N: I ought to be writing on my other fic, but I felt like writing something light and fluffy. Thus this little thing.

Disclaimer: No, I don't own anything. Not making a profit, sadly.

* * *

"All right, you're finished. Now see how it feels."

Ratchet put down the welder in his hand and watched as Mirage got up from the berth, walking to and fro on the floor somewhat gingerly.

"Perfect," he said, smiling. "Thanks, Ratchet."

"Yeah, well, no problem," Ratchet replied, somewhat distracted as he wiped the tools he had used to replace Mirage's knee joint and put them back in their respective places. "Now get out." He waved half-heartily towards the door.

Mirage seemed happy to comply and quickly left the med bay, leaving Ratchet alone to clear up. Sighing softly he picked up yet another tool and started to wipe it off with the cleansing solution and put it down in its rack with far greater gentleness than he usually showed his patients. He was feeling somewhat disappointed and distracted, and it made him feel annoyed. _Get over it_, he thought, _he's got a very busy schedule. He can't be expected to remember everything. It's not that important anyway. What is a stupid human year, after all?_

But he _did_ think it was important, in a way, and he _did_ expect Prowl to remember it. The whole notion of anniversaries, while initially dismissed as another human peculiarity, had sort of slowly rubbed off on them, and even the 'bots who weren't usually into human things had started to observe certain anniversaries. It had spread, osmosis-like, until most of the Ark thought it natural that a couple would want to celebrate their first year together.

So why had Prowl just run off to work first thing in the morning, without even waiting for him to wake up?

Closing the soft bag around the tools and putting it away on a shelf he pondered the question. It wasn't unusual for one of them to go off without waking the other; it was seen as a gesture of care and not of ignorance. Neither of them got as much recharge as they should, so to wake their partner would be rather... egoistical. But he had thought that Prowl would still be there when he woke up. He had thought that today would be special enough for the tactician to stay a little bit longer and not rush off to work first thing in the morning. Primus, he already worked more than any other 'bot on the Ark (except maybe for Optimus), surely he could take half an hour off his schedule to enjoy a quiet morning with his partner?

With that in mind he grabbed a cloth and started to clean the berth. It didn't really help his pondering mood that he had precious little to distract him with. There hadn't been a battle for days, and for some unfathomable reason most of the Ark's resident were keeping calm. No pranks, no brawls in the corridors, no weird accidents. Ergo, not much for him to do. The only person who'd come to see him all day had been Mirage, who'd managed to twist his leg in a weird way, tearing the struts in his knee joint. He refused to say how he'd gotten hurt, and Ratchet was not in a mood to ask.

So, when Jazz suddenly burst into the room, filling the room with his rather exuberant personality, Ratchet was both relieved and a bit annoyed. The saboteur jumped onto a berth and looked at Ratchet, a large smile plastered on his face. The medic looked at him, somewhat perplexed that the cheerful 'bot wasn't saying anything, just kept smiling at him. Well, grinning was probably a more apt description. Like he knew something that Ratchet didn't...

"What?" he finally barked, tired of the scrutinising. Jazz's smile got even wider, if possible.

"Nuthin'", he said, and before Ratchet could ask him why then was he grinning like an idiot, his comlink beeped.

"Yes?" he said, somewhat grouchingly, as he saw Jazz slide off the berth and disappear out of the door. Not that he had any time to ponder the strange visit, as Optimus's voice cut through the silence.

"Ratchet? I apologise for the inconvenience, but I got a call from the Saint Mary's Hospital, they were going to have a lecture from this famous surgeon, but now it turns out that he's sick, and they desperately need a replacement. Someone special, because apparently doctors from all over the country have been travelling there for the lecture and the organisers would hate to disappoint them. I know you were supposed to have the night off, but..." he trailed off, and Ratchet sighed heavily.

"I understand, Prime. Just give me the coordinates for the place; I'm sure I can find something to talk about."

Not that he looked forward to it. Spending the entire evening talking to human doctors... well, it could be interesting, certainly, but this night... he shook his head. Sure, Prowl would understand. Pit, he would probably not even notice it, submerged in his work as he seemed today. But still...

He received the coordinates and the time from Optimus, and leaved the med bay. At the entrance to the Ark he transformed and rolled out towards the coordinates, some 15 miles away. It was already early evening, and soon the sun would set in its usual show of deep red and vibrant pink. Not that he was watching the sky. He was barely watching the road; instead he was deep in thought, thinking of what to talk about during the lecture (finally settling on how certain surgical equipment could be improved), and also about the stupidness of the whole day, from the morning until now. It truly felt like a day wasted, he'd done nothing important, and he hadn't had the chance to see his lover all day. What a worthless anniversary.

He was so deep in thought he barely noticed as he came up on his coordinates, and it wasn't until his HUD started blinking that he was there that he actually looked around. He frowned. There was no hospital in sight, only a long stretch of rocky beach. He moaned softly, just what he needed, he'd gotten the wrong coordinates and now he was somewhere else entirely. Cursing he double-checked them, just in case, but nope, this was the spot Optimus had indicated. He had started opening a line to Optimus as he noticed something, hidden halfway behind a protruding cliff. Curiosity getting the better of him he started towards it. The call could wait a few minutes.

Turning around the cliff he almost jumped in surprise. There was a fire burning, large by human measurements but the size of an ordinary campfire to him, as well as a large blanket; and strangest of all, several cubes of energon. He stared at the sight for a moment, not sure of what he was seeing. Clearly no human had arranged this. He took another step toward the fire, feeling the gentle warmth of it, and then he actually _did_ jump as he heard a voice behind him.

"Please, sit down."

He knew that voice. He knew that voice so well, and he turned around, a surprised smile on his face.

"Prowl...?"

The tactician was standing behind him, white armour glowing almost orange in the light of the fire, smiling almost shyly at him.

"I'm glad you came," he said.

Ratchet just stared at him for several moments.

"You... you arranged this? Wait a minute. So there is no hospital? No lecture? No sick doctor?" Suddenly he understood what Jazz's strange visit had been about, surely he knew about this. And Prowl had dragged Prime into it as well... that sneaky little thing!

Prowl just shook his head, still smiling.

"I wanted to surprise you. You do remember what day it is today, don't you?" Ratchet just nodded, to stunned to talk, as Prowl took a step forward, taking his hand in his, guiding him down to sit on the blanket by the fire. "Here, I brought some energon," he said, handling Ratchet a cube.

"I– uh, thank you."

"They say it's going to be a beautiful sunset tonight. I've never really looked at one properly, but I thought that if I'm going to do that, I want to do it with you."

Ratchet looked out over the ocean, and sure, the sun was beginning to set, colouring the sky in various shades of pink, orange, blue and red.

"It's pretty," he agreed. "Not as pretty as you, though," he added, grinning sideways at his partner who just bowed his head coyly.

They sat in silence for a while, just enjoying the gentle touch of their hands in each other's, watching the sun slowly dip below the surface of the ocean.

"You know," Ratchet said as the last of the light had died away and they were left in the glow of the fire, "I almost thought you'd forgotten about today."

Prowl looked at him, a surprised look passing over his face.

"Ratchet..." he said. "I would never forget."


	2. Feline

A/N: I didn't mean to continue this, but I got a challenge from a friend who wanted me to write a sweet drabble with this pairing, including a beach, moonlight and a cat. Since I'd already written a thing with them on a beach I simply kind of continued it. It can be read separately as well. Just some fluff.

* * *

This, Ratchet mused, was definitely the most relaxed he'd felt in a long time. The fire was sparkling merrily in front of him, and the hand that was slowly stroking his forehead made him sigh contently. He had no idea how long he'd been lying with his head in Prowl's lap, just enjoying the soft touch, and he found he had no real desire to check his chronometer to find out. Time was non-existing, all that mattered was the closeness and warmth he felt emanating from the other.

Of course, he knew it wouldn't last forever; soon they would have to get up and get back to the Ark, and tomorrow would be a day like any other, with the same work as always. But for now he was perfectly content where he was, letting Prowl stroke away all his tension as he softly moved his hand over his helm, across his forehead, occasionally sliding up along one sharp edge of his chevron.

Feeling so at peace with everything, it took him a moment to realise when Prowl had stopped caressing him. Lifting his head slightly from where it rested he twisted his neck to look at Prowl, who was sitting all tense, hand lifted mid-air, a look of uttermost concentration on his face.

"Prowl, wha–"

"Shh." Prowl lifted a finger to silence him, still staring off into nowhere. Ratchet frowned, turning up the sensitivity on his audios, wondering what Prowl might have heard. He could make out the soft lapping of the waves as they met the beach, the crackle of the fire in front of them, the soft sounds of some kind of insect or something around them, as well as the soft humming of Prowl's systems close by. Nothing out of the ordinary, and he was just about to tell Prowl that when a scream echoed from far away.

"There!" Prowl said. "What's that? Do you think someone might be in need of our help?" His whole body was tense, ready to spring to action at any moment. Ratchet however simply gave a short laugh, earning a scalding look from Prowl.

"Relax, Prowl... no one is in trouble. It's just a cougar."

"A what?" Prowl looked so clueless Ratchet had to laugh again at the expression that was gracing the other's face. Twisting around he planted a hand on the beach and heaved himself up from Prowl's lap to better see his partner.

"Primus, for having lived here on this planet for as long as you have, you really don't know anything about its wildlife, do you?" he said as he sat up and made himself comfortable next to Prowl, who scowled at him.

"Well, forgive me if I've had better things to do with my time. Like, maybe, you know, doing my job?"

Ratchet barked out a small laugh again, pulling the other close.

"I know, I know, I'm just teasing you."

"So..." Prowl said after a moment of silence, "it's an animal making that noise?" He relaxed slightly against Ratchet's bigger bulk, placing a hand on his windshield, although Ratchet could feel he was still rather tense. Ratchet nodded, and he felt Prowl hesitating before continuing. "It's not... dangerous, is it?"

Ratchet looked down at him, surprised.

"Dangerous? No... Well, maybe to humans, but not to us. It's like a big cat, actually." He hesitated for a moment. "You _do_ know what cats are, right?"

"Considering I almost ran one over yesterday, yes," Prowl deadpanned. "Those things are everywhere; I don't know how people can stand having them around."

"Well, they seem to be rather nice pets. In fact..." Ratchet trailed off, an evil grin forming on his face.

"Yes?" Prowl prompted.

"In fact," Ratchet continued, "you remind me of one."

That made Prowl sit up straight, looking at his partner as if he'd just turned pink.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Well, they're sneaky, beautiful, graceful, and agile, and deadly when in the mood... and yet, all you have to do is scratch them in the right place and they turn into a purring pool of cuddliness." Ratchet grinned at Prowl who was just staring at him, mouth agape.

"I– I'm not like that!" Prowl said. "I do not _purr_ simply because you scratch me!"

Ratchet laughed at the indignant tone. "Oh, but you do!" Stretching out with he grabbed Prowl and yanked him up against his chest, ignoring the small yelp of surprise from the other as he found himself suddenly sitting nested in Ratchet's lap, back flush against the bigger mech's chest, wide arms wrapped around him just beneath his door wings, keeping him in place. "See what happens if I do... _this_," Ratchet said with a grin as he tightened his grip with one arm around the struggling mech, and gently dragged his fingers under Prowl's bumper.

"I... Ratch, this is unfair!" Prowl said, but he stopped squirming and leaned his head backwards to rest on Ratchet's shoulder. "This isn't... fair..."

"All is fair in love and war," Ratchet murmured against the white helmet. He kept on softly moving his fingers in circles underneath Prowl's bumper, and smiled inwardly as he was rewarded by the sound of an engine starting up, sending soft vibrations through both their frames.

"See?" he said, keeping up the motion and ignoring the half-hearted mutters from Prowl. "Just like a cat."

Prowl simply muttered something Ratchet couldn't catch, but he did relax, allowing Ratchet to loosen his grip around his midsection.

"What's that, love?" Ratchet asked as he moved his now freed hand to softly trace one of Prowl's headlights.

"You... you better not stop what you're doing", Prowl answered, sounding almost sleepy. Ratchet was not surprised; he knew perfectly well how relaxing his touches were to his partner. And Prowl was surely in need of just as much stress-release as himself. Their work usually took up almost all of their time, and it wasn't often they could just sit and relax and enjoy each other's company.

"Hey, Prowl?" Ratchet asked, hand hovering above a headlight.

"Yes?" came the somewhat sleepy answer.

"Do you think they would miss us terribly if we suddenly went AWOL, for, I don't know, a week or so?"

Prowl chuckled, the deep sound sending vibrations to Ratchet. "We would be returning to a disaster area. Can you imagine poor Prime trying to deal with everything from Jazz's crazy party ideas to Wheeljack's even crazier experiments?"

"Heh. Yeah. Would be fun though."

"Up until we get back and have to fix everything, that is," Prowl said in a dry voice. "Not to mention the punishment we would receive for leaving without cause."

"Well, there's always a catch," Ratchet said, resuming his attention to Prowl's headlight, earning him a deep satisfied sigh from his partner. He lazily watched his own finger slowly caress the headlight, taking in the way the glow from the slowly dying fire reflected on Prowl's body. A small sound further off along the beach made him look up, and he gently shook Prowl who had almost fallen into recharge.

"Look," he whispered, pointing to the large feline that had appeared on a cliff, silhouetted against the moon.

"Hmm?" Prowl said. "Oh... is that the cougar?" Ratchet nodded, as Prowl looked pensive. For a long moment neither of them said anything, both mechs simply watching the animal in silence.

"You know..." Prowl finally said, "It's a pretty animal." He turned his head, looking at Ratchet, grinning slightly. "I hereby give you permission to compare me to one of those any time you like."

Ratchet laughed. "You got it, love."

His fingers once again found their way beneath Prowl's bumper, and soon a purring engine drowned out all other sounds on the beach.


End file.
